Automated Ocean Cleaner

Picking up trash on the streets is something that is usually done manually with a long stick with a pointy end and a garage bag but how do we pick up trash that’s in the ocean? Usually the trash in the ocean is picked up when it eventually washes up on our beach. You could say that we should have nets in curtain locations in order to collect the trash before it washes up on the beach; however, that tends to catch wildlife as well. In 2015, here comes a 20-year old with an idea that implemented a machine that cleans the ocean and requires no manual labor besides emptying the trash it collects. Rather than waiting for the trash to appear on land, the machine is carefully placed in a strong current so that the trash goes to the machine. The machine is also wildlife friendly in which it should not collect any fish swimming near.

Although there are large clumps of trash floating in the ocean far away from major cities, it affects the wildlife which directly affects those cities. The ocean can never fully dissolve the floating garbage as so the garbage turns into micro plastics. These floating particles are ingested by all the wildlife as they swim and eat in it and in turn we eat them. Projects such as these will gain more momentum and funding as the costs of collecting the trash will be reduced. Not to mention the plastic collected can be recycled using fewer materials.